You may have noticed that a brand new
campaign launched this weekend to try to stimulate flagging beer sales in the
UK.

Whilst I laud the attempt to try to do
something about the situation, I can’t help feeling disappointed [and a little
baffled] about how advertising has been used to tackle the issue.

“Let There Be Beer” is the tub-thumping,
rallying cry of the campaign.

“Let There Be Beer”?

Judging from the launch commercial that’s
just been produced “Let There Be Lager” would have been a much more
appropriate slogan.

Is this really the best the brewing
industry could do?

They’ve ended up making what seems like a
totally generic campaign for lager. I’ve looked hard and can’t see any evidence
of ale being featured in any of the depressingly familiar and laboured
vignettes of the commercial.

Apparently the five biggest global brewers
are behind the campaign. And therein lies the problem.

Hats off to them for clubbing together to
fund the campaign. However, while
the input of their cash is probably the single most important thing that’s
helped this initiative to see the light of day, it’s also given them blinkered buyer’s rights
into controlling the messaging to ensure that their own nests are amply
feathered.

I totally appreciate that that this
campaign needs to generate a commercial gain and a decent return on their
investment but it looks like this conglomerate has fallen into the trap of
making an ad that’s more in their interests than that of their audience.

And it’s this conflict of interest that
could ultimately backfire as it comes across like a cynical corporate marketing
ploy rather than a genuine attempt to inform, educate and entertain.

There’s nothing in the ad that gives people
a single reason to think differently about beer. In fact, I’d wager that it
merely reinforces what people already think and know about the category.

This ad doesn’t say or do anything different
to the campaigns that the brewers already have out there for their bland, bog
standard fizzy lagers. It’s of the same frothy, fluffy ilk and cut from the
same knockabout cloth as cooking lager advertising that it’s possible that
punters could even misattribute it to a brand instead of a category push.

I winced and shuddered when I read the
quote from someone involved with the campaign talking about how it demonstrated
“beer’s unifying presence at social events”.

Fuck me, what’s the new news here that’s
going to make people re-evaluate beer and drink it more often?

Beer as a reward for hard graft and thirsty
work [the barbecue scenario].

Beer as a social lubricant to help bonding
with new people in uncomfortable situations [the “meet the girlfriend’s father
scenario”]

Beer to celebrate the end of the working
week and time to kick back and relax [the office scenario]

All of these clichéd social situations
aren’t exclusive to or owned by the consumption of beer. They can be and are
often fuelled by any kind of booze [well, not absinthe maybe].

My biggest gripe in the whole flawed
strategy is that they haven’t started with the product and worked their
thinking around this.

There’s so many potentially interesting
things to say about the vast array of different types and styles of beer that
are emerging these days that would open up people’s eyes to the possibilities
of what they might be missing.

It’s true that young people “drink to fit
in” and choose brands they like. But it’s also true that there comes a time
when depth of flavour, taste and experimentation becomes important in their drinking habits and repertoires.

It feels like they’ve decided to treat the
category as a brand and ignored all the product qualities of beer in favour of
undifferentiated, touchy-feely guff instead. This is a crying shame as there’s
a real story to tell about product quality as CAMRA, the small breweries and
craft beer makers would all testify.

People are drinking less beer because other
drinks are seen as being a more interesting and rewarding alternative, whether
that be flavoured ciders, alcoholic ginger beer, wine, spirits, cocktails etc.

This campaign could have been an
opportunity to challenge people’s assumptions about beer and make them think
differently about the world of beer.

I hotfooted it over to the Let There Be
Beer website to see if there was more depth of product communication behind the
campaign only to be met with a holding page with a date proclaiming 11.08.13.

Another major fail. Why go on TV with ads
and not have a website ready?

It’s left me wondering what momentous thing
is going to happen in six weeks time.
Apparently they’re in the process of “creating a whole new world of beer
for you”.

Now that’s some claim and undertaking. I’d politely suggest that a “whole new world
of beer” doesn’t need to be created. People just need to know more about the
world of beer that exists right now rather than a parallel universe where
cooking lager is king.

whass soo wong wiht absinthe, some of my bes frends is absinthe! Seriously tho nit being "in the trade" (advertising or beer) its really hard to see what this ad is driving at, and supported by face book and twatter, surely you have to be over the age of those users to be allowed to drink beer?

I'd seen the ad a couple of times before being curious enough at the lack of a brand to Google it. Honestly I expected it to be some corny attempt by Carling to tap into social media.

I agree all the ad tells you is what people already know, in the most cliched and laddish of ways possible, and for most people who currently turn their noses up at beer it confirms what they think they know, that beer is bland fizzy and generic; when in fact the message should be that drinking beer can be every bit as varied and nuanced as wine or whisky.

But since the companies behind this product mainly bland fizzy and generic beer only suitable for refreshment, looking blokish and social lubrication they're not going to do this.

What they've ended up doing is tainting the whole beer industry with the whiff of the lager-lout.